SPQR Hot Like a... uhm... Oven

[spqrblues]

Nihil Humano Me Alienum Puto, or, "Parental Advisory: Naked People in Close Proximity!"

A new comic this evening when I'm done with my busybusy work day. But first, on account of no one is wearing a stitch of clothing in any of this comic's panels, I guess I ought to say something erudite.

Romans had strict ideas of modesty and propriety, but they tended to be happily naked quite a bit—either in an intimate situation, or at the public baths, or out doing construction work or playing sports in a tiny slip of fabric wrapped around the uppers and nethers (though most athletes wore more clothing and gear than those crazy nekkid Greeks). And of course, nude statues and fescoes, painted in lifelike colours, abounded in public places and private homes. Not to mention the lamps and doorbells shaped like boy parts, and a phallus on every oven to ensure the bread would rise. But, I feel compelled to add a note about today's comic, because to my knowledge my readership is primarily in the U.S., and, well, you know how we are. Sometimes one just doesn't expect to get naked people in the morning breakfast cereal, or in the daily webcomic.

Oh, and Happy Fornacalia. Yes, it's spelled correctly—it's the festival of ovens and baking. I hope everyone got a piece of King Cake yesterday, or at least a nice nondemoninational muffin.

Comments

[kyleen66.livejournal.com]

I am looking forward to said nakedness!

Yay!

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Well, it won't be as nakedy as That Other Place :)

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Does "Nihil Humano Me Alienum Puto" really translate to "Naked People in Close Proximity!"? I don't know a lot of Latin, but that looks fishy to me....:)

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Trust me... I'm a classicist... ::makes distracting wavy hand motions in air::

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Mm-hmm....Google says it means something more like "nothing human is strange to me".

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Hey, what happened to the reply I posted to this? I'll try to remember it:

The more scholarly translation of the quote from Terence would be, "Hey, I'm a human myself, so why would I freak out out at anything people get up to? Lemme see!"

Then I said something about hearting Terence, and how the quote was written around the wall of one of the student unions at school, and then something wicked clever and snarky about student weirdness, and I believe hand-waving followed.

[b2creative.livejournal.com]

NEKKID PEOPLE!!!!

::Lynda cavorts madly around the room::

Hey - nowadays I take what I can get.

From what you wrote above, it seems like modesty and propriety were more a state of mind than a state of dress for them. Which is exactly the way it should be!

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Rules about good behaviour (usually) make more sense to me than rules about your clothing.

On the other hand, the Romans had very specific rules about clothing and STATUS--your shoes, the colour and width of the stripes on your tunic, the matron's overdress--and periodically tried to limit women's jewelry, which never lasted long.

[b2creative.livejournal.com]

Oh, and no King Cake, but I did have an artery-clogging paczki yesterday - does that count?

[cyanocorax.livejournal.com]

I miss those yummy "ponch-keys" we used to have in Michigan. We did a King Cake at home for the first time ever. I never heard of them before moving to Maryland, and now they are everywhere.

I vow to celebrate any holiday that involves pastry.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Is there a holiday which does not involve pastry?

[b2creative.livejournal.com]

St. Patrick's Day?

Unless you count the yeast in all that beer.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

It isn't a pastry strictly, but I do usually make Irish soda bread with raisins for St. Paddy's. I am the carb queen. Atkins' diet would kill me.

[b2creative.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I've made Irish soda bread before (it's a quick bread, therefore I can successfully make it without my phallic oven since it isn't supposed to rise). I too would not survive Atkins - fresh bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes are necessary for my survival.

[hieran.livejournal.com]

I submit for your consideration:

President's Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Veteran's Day

I was going to add Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I guess one could stretch those ... *my* family certainly eats a lot of bready things on those holidays...

Of course, my aunt is a professional pastry chef and dessert caterer, so we eat pastry thingys a lot. But not on President's Day!!

[xanath.livejournal.com]

::blink blink::

a phallus on every oven to ensure the bread would rise.

::blink blink::

So this is why I can't seem to make a decent loaf of bread?


--Kris ;)

[b2creative.livejournal.com]

This explains a lot for me too. I can't make a loaf of bread from scratch to save my soul, yet I've had tremendous success with my vaguely phallus-shaped (if a bit wide) bread maker, even though I'm using the exact same ingredients.

I think the Romans were on to something here.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I thought everyone knew about the old phallus-on-the-oven trick.

Gaahhh, I need sleep. Maybe tomorrow night sometime.